Little Men, Big Power Vol.2: Jimmy Wilde

By Ian Murphy

Ninety-Nine Knockouts. This amazing feat was accomplished by a man who weighed just over one-hundred pounds. Generously listed at 5’2, Welsh Flyweight powerhouse Jimmy Wilde was known as “The Ghost With A Hammer In His Hand”, implying he was incredibly difficult to hit and when he hit you in return, it was devastating. Perhaps no one in the long history of professional boxing had the relative power that Wilde possessed. In an era that was curiously full of lighter weight athletes, Wilde rose above them all, becoming the first recognized World Flyweight Champion and reigned from 1916 to 1923.

Jimmy Wilde was born in the mining village of Merthyr Tydfil near Tylorstown, Wales, in 1892. Beyond working in the mines with his father, Wilde (like many young men of humble beginnings) did not have much mobility in his career path. He soon learned that he possessed an uncanny ability to hit with crushing power and soon found his niche as a “booth fighter”, or someone who worked at a carnival that took on audience members in boxing matches. Wilde barely weighed 100lbs at the time and routinely battered men upwards of 170lbs. He seemed at first glance to be such easy pickings, but when this scrawny teenager hit you…

Despite his lack of size, Jimmy Wilde was able to use momentum and his incredible reflexes to generate enormous power.
According to Nat Fleisher (founder of Ring Magazine),”His sense of distance was uncanny. He could stand within range of a blow when it started but when an opponent let it loose, a little jerk of the head or the body and the punch landed in space.” This allowed Wilde to counterpunch his opponents when they were at their most vulnerable and made his punches that much more destructive. His right hand was particularly nasty, rendering men unconscious on the regular.

Using this whirlwind technique, Wilde could get his whole bodyweight behind each of his punches. This is apparent when you look at footage of Wilde clipping his adversaries with counters and they often went across the ring staggering into (and sometimes through!) the ropes. Once Wilde had you hurt, the end was near, and out of his 137 recorded fights (some sources say he had hundreds more, but are not wholly credible) he won nearly 100 by knockout. Two of his three career losses came in his last two fights. This illustrates how dangerous and unbelievably talented he was. Footage of Wilde is sparse and grainy at best due to the times in which he fought, but even today he is well regarded and respected for the great fighter and murderous puncher that he was.